The field of the invention is in the laser communication art.
When solid state lasers (Nd:YAG,Ruby) are cavity dumped with a large fraction of the circulating power being coupled out, a sudden change in circulating power occurs. After the dumping phase is over, power must again build up in the cavity. However, due to the slow response time of the gain in these systems, the intracavity power overshoots the steady state value and commences an oscillation whose damping time is on the order of several hundred microseconds. If the cavity must be dumped during this period, one will be highly uncertain of the amplitude of the coupled-out pulse. An intracavity frequency doubler positioned in the cavity as disclosed herein will decrease this damping time so that pulses may be dumped more frequently with less variation in amplitude.
Frequency doubling crystals and their use in laser cavities to produce relatively large amounts of second harmonic power are well known. The second harmonic power is conventionally used as another beam of intelligence carrying radiation with appreciable circulating power extracted from the cavity to produce the high frequency beam.
The following publications may be helpful in further understanding the invention.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,648,193 to patentees Foster et al, 3,703,687 to patentee Maydan, 3,766,393 to patentees Herzog et al, 3,869,680 to Fletcher et al, and C. J. Kennedy and J. D. Barry "Stability of an Intracavity Frequency Doubled Nd:YAG Laser", IEEE J. Quant. Electronics, Vol. QE-10, No. 8, pp 596-599, August 1974.